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The Biden administration this week canceled $1.2 billion in student debt nationwide. In Pennsylvania, that means 5,600 borrowers with a total of $45.1 million in debt have had their loans wiped clean, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
The agency on Friday released a state-by-state breakdown of where the 153,000 borrowers live who are covered by the administration’s move, announced Wednesday.
Student debt is a crushing issue for both students and their families and one the president has pledged to address.
Many Pennsylvanians covered by the program already have received emails notifying them that they are now debt-free. That’s also true in neighboring states.
In Ohio, 7,540 indebted students are learning they have been freed from a collective total of $60 million in loans.
A total of 1,070 West Virginians are sharing in $8.8 million in loan cancelation.
New Yorkers numbering 8,190 will collectively be unburdened of $63.4 million in debt.
This week’s action applies to borrowers enrolled in the income-driven student loan repayment plan called Saving on a Valuable Education Plan (SAVE).
“When we talk about fixing a broken student loan system, this is what we’re talking about,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “The state-by-state SAVE Plan debt forgiveness numbers we’re announcing today not only show that President Biden’s leadership is making a real impact on people’s lives in every state — they demonstrate that we won’t ever stop fighting to make higher education more affordable and accessible for more Americans.”
The U.S. Supreme Court last June struck down a wider student-debt forgiveness plan, saying the president lacked constitutional authority. He has since taken to more piecemeal efforts to achieve the same goal.
Those opposed to loan forgiveness say the issue is one of personal responsibility, that students should pay off their debts and that wide-scale loan forgiveness is an unfair burden on taxpayers.
Defenders of Biden’s efforts say college prices have skyrocketed in recent decades, and students burdened with $100,000 or more in debt are delaying home purchases and other spending that hurts the economy.
Nationwide, the three states with the largest share of canceled loan debt announced Wednesday are:
- Texas: 14,510 students free of a combined $116.6 million
- California: 13,580 students free of a combined $114.8 million
- Florida: 12,790 students free of a combined $105.4 million
For a borrower to be eligible for the forgiveness at this time, they must be enrolled in the SAVE Plan, have been making at least 10 years of payments, and have originally taken out $12,000 or less for college, according to the Department of Education.
For every $1,000 borrowed above $12,000, a borrower can receive forgiveness after an additional year of payments, officials said. All borrowers on SAVE obtain forgiveness after 20 or 25 years, depending on whether they have loans for graduate school, according to the department.
The benefit is based upon the original principal balance of all federal loans borrowed as a student to attend school, not what a borrower currently owes or the amount of an individual loan.
Bill Schackner is a TribLive reporter covering higher education. Raised in New England, he joined the Trib in 2022 after 29 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where he was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. Previously, he has written for newspapers in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. He can be reached at bschackner@triblive.com.
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